Follow the Energy

     I'm no stranger to anxiety.  It gets the best of me when I overwhelm myself and lose my center.  But in those moments, I think of what my friend Richard always says:  Follow the energy.
     Today I had a lot of things to do and people to connect with.  This is good because I want to be useful.  But thinking of them all at once along with imagined consequences?  Mmmmmm, not so good.  How to break that mindset?  Well I was making my coffee around 6:45am enjoying a beautiful sunrise in the east, when I noticed a very dark sky in the west.  I love the play of light in the sky, so I abandoned kitchen duty to follow my energy up to the back porch.  Amazingly, there was a rainbow stretching across my neighbor's house!  First I had no inkling it would rain this morning; the sky looked that innocuous.  Then to see this wonder of nature just blew me away.  What a reward for breaking with habit and acting on impulse.
     Then my roofer showed up to investigate the cause of the leak on my front porch.  He is very pleasant and knows his stuff.  Since I had all these things to do, I was hoping he'd just do his work, give me the diagnosis, and be off.  But then I followed my energy.  I let him engage me in a 90-minute conversation that left my jaw hanging.  He loves the roofing work, but he is also a writer, a musician, and an inventor!  "See that gadget on your storm door that keeps it open when you push the button?  I invented that."  One fascinating revelation after another.  He is probably the most "non-pigeon" person I've ever met in my life.  Trust me, I'm staying in touch with him.
     Finally, I began my course, "I'm No Pigeon," this evening at our adult education program.  I had done little preparation for it; I like to conjure the opening remarks just to get myself pumped up for the class.  But I was sidetracked by everything else that day and ran out of time.  I simply followed the energy instead.  Sure enough I was sharing my  insights with the students when one leaned forward with light bulbs going off over his head.  Whatever I had said resonated with him deeply, and he began to think about his situation differently.

    Anxiety almost got the better of me.  When I allowed myself to feel burdened, I blocked myself off from inspiration.  But when I chose to open myself to inspiration, there it was.  Will it always be this dramatic?   Who knows?  But each day is different, each moment presents opportunities.  So what opportunities might you be missing by being caught up in your own anxieties?  Just be aware and open to inspiration.  I'd love to know what you discovered.

Pax tecum.